[novatea]

Hack Club had a $5,000/year contract with Slack (renewed in May iirc), but Salesforce just suddenly told them to pay $50,000 within a week and $200,000/year, without warning, or they would deactivate the whole workspace. That's how the HC founder told it in the Slack announcement, anyways.

[tomhow]

Yes, but there has to be more to the story, that we're not being told. Without knowing why this organization was previously eligible for the discount, but no longer is eligible for that discount, we really don't know much at all.

[milkshakes]

it seems your concerns are addressed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45285280

why has this post been taken off the front page, and why has the title been editorialized?

[dang]

Yup we agree and have restored the post. The extra background was helpful, plus the community response is clear from the thread and we try never to fight the community.

The title edit is standard practice though - the word "extorted" is too baity for HN's frontpage (see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait."). Making titles somewhat more factual/neutral is normal HN moderation. That's not a criticism of the OP, mind you! - we'd feel the same way too in their position.

[yerushalayim]

Oh, please!

[colonelspace]

> why has the title been editorialized

Indeed, the HN guidelines:

> please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize

[dang]

By "editorialize" we mean changing a title to introduce spin, or cherry-picking one detail to bias the reader in the direction that the submitter personally wants, rather than reflecting the article as a whole (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45202136 for a recent comment about that).

In this case, that wasn't at issue. The operative clause is "unless it is misleading or linkbait". A word like "extorted" is too baity for HN's frontpage. This is nothing personal against the OP! It's actually better for them and for Hack Club if the HN title is relatively neutral while still conveying the critical information.